BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) plus Indonesia are where internet and mobile are exploding
Doyen of internet analysis Mary Meeker of Morgan Stanley has provided some great data and insights in her presentation at Web 2.0 today. She has framed it around 10 questions Internet executives should ask themselves (and answer). The full deck is well worth going through – I have put that at the bottom of the post – but I wanted to highlight a couple of her slides on globalization of the internet and mobile.
Almost half of the people in the world using the internet are in five countries: the US plus the BRIC countries of Brazil, Russia, India, and China). The US is close to full penetration, though there is still a little further to go, and the pace of growth in Brazil is slow despite only being at 39% penetration – this is likely to increase. Where there is undoubtedly extraordinary potential for growth is in China, where internet usage is soaring, and India, where growth hasn’t yet started to properly ramp up. Russia, while not as populous as its neighbors, still has plenty of scope of growth. In short, these five countries will soon account for significantly more than half of the world’s internet population.
The pace of growth of mobile internet dwarfs that of the internet, certainly in developed countries, and to a massive degree in developing countries. The shift to 3G networks and phones around the world is enabling hundreds of millions access to the internet for the first time, changing mobile devices from phones to browsers and beyond.
The only countries in the world that have anything close to full penetration of 3G are Japan and South Korea, but 3G growth rates are over 30% in countries such as USA, UK, Germany, France, Australia. The growth rates in the BRIC countries are phenomenal.
One thing that stands out is the potential of Indonesia. While a few people refer to BRIIC to include Indonesia, it is usually ignored. Its population of 238 million makes it the fourth most populous country in the world, and while its GDP per capita of $2,800 is lower than any of the BRIC countries, it is not a long way behind China and its economic growth has been consistent through this decade and at around a 6% pace over the last few years.
Fixed internet has low penetration in Indonesia, but mobile internet is quickly leap-frogging to become the dominant means of access, as it is throughout Africa. While there are just 20 million 3G subscribers in Indonesia today, expect that to grow at a very high rate in coming years to place Indonesia as one of the most connected countries in the world in terms of absolute numbers of users.
Below is the full presentation from Mary Meeker.
